Developing an OER Resource for Methods Teaching

Isabelle Brent: C-SAP (Higher Education Academy Subject Centre for Sociology, Anthropology and Politics)

Project OverviewKey objective: to improve the discoverability

of OER materials to support research methods teaching

Project is divided into two parts:1. Exploring how teaching staff search

and use methods resources through:Survey of practicesExpert workshop

2. Development of Front End which incorporates elements identified as important

2

Survey Key FindingsMost people make specific searches for resources

rather than engage in general searches on an ongoing basis

Who created the resource is important Knowing the disciplinary context of a learning

resource is usefulQuality is more important than formatMixed views on user ratingsCopyright not regarded as important if used for

educational purposesMost popular sites are Google, Google Scholar,

YouTube and Wikipedia3

4

Sites used most often to search for resources

Goo

gle

Goo

gle

Schol

ar

YouTube

Wik

iped

ia

Intu

te

Amaz

on

Oth

er

Joru

mOpe

n

Flickr

Bin

g

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Key Findings of Expert Workshop and User-Testing

Workshop

Trust key issue – people prefer in-house or resources from known universities (or publishers)

Own data sets preferred for teaching methods

Licensing not seen as an issue within academic institutions

Disciplinary origin of resources less relevant than using examples that connect to students

Most participants not keen to submit OERs

User-Testing

User problems with all OER sites

Number of irrelevant results weakened trust

Presentation of sites was confusing

Not enough information given about resource author etc.

Slow download time of resource plus additional barriers

Usefulness of teaching exercises questioned

Google considered more effective for finding resources

5

6

Search Criteria IdentifiedWays of searchingTags, Topic, theme, keyword, Subject or method

Classification of resourcesTheoretical, historical, case study, materials, data-sets, module outlines, seminar plans  

Other criteriaUsability, Recommendation from a trusted source, Popularity index, Up to date, Easy to download, Clear licensing

Suggestions for a Front-End• ‘Gateway’ of vetted materials – single

search box like Google• Case studies’ (or practical examples that

support methods)• Videos• Web2 features (Amazon style

recommendations, ‘listmania’ ‘readers also bought’, Facebook page, blog)• Resources for comparing different

methods7

8

Four Ideas for a Front-End

Drawing on the key themes that have emerged four proposals for discussion are suggested:

1.Video Resource2.Methods Gateway3.‘Examples’ Resource4.Blog/Website Resource

9

Blog Elements: Front Page Page

Resource Review

Student Review

Cloud Tag

Events

Xpert/Jorum/Google

Custom search

Video of the

Week

OER Recommende

r10

Current Challenges & Questions

Identification of videosRefinement of search widgetsWeb 2 features?Meta-data

11